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“Come on, Doc,” he says, standing and stretching his legs and back. “We don’t want you to be late. And we can cut our time in half if we run down the trail.”
I close my eyes and breathe deeply.
I can do this.
I think.
* * *
I limp into the conference with a minute to spare and sit in the back. I have a feeling that tomorrow Luke is going to need to carry me around wherever we go. That burn in my legs will only compound until I can barely walk. I will be hobbling around like I’m a hundred years old in a few short hours.
But, even so, I feel the smallest kernel of pride erupting inside of me.
I did it.I did it.
Luke had looked at me with something I couldn’t decipher as we climbed into the rental car and made our way toward the hotel. Maybe he was proud of me too, and that did something terrible to my heart.
As we drove through the small downtown on our way back to the hotel, Luke pulled the car over and placed it in park.
“Give me five minutes,” he’d said and then jogged across the street, returning five minutes later with a green T-shirt that readI Climbed the Manitou Incline.
I’d taken it reluctantly, pretending like my heart didn’t warm at his thoughtfulness. Nope, this heart is an iceberg, I’d reminded myself.
But hell, Luke is my climate change and my polar ice caps are melting. This can’t be good.
“You’ll wear it, yeah?” he asked me with raised eyebrows, and I’d hummed a noncommittal answer.
Because I have a secret.
I’ll wear it when no one is around, stare at it, pet it, and remember every fucking thing about today. But I can’t let my sisters see me in it, or else they’ll know how far I’ve fallen.
The truth is, my fingers that have been grasping onto my bitterness are letting go one by one. Pretty soon, it’s going to be a free fall.
My phone vibrates against my thigh as the speaker for this session drones on and on. I pull it out, seeing a picture of Luke wearing the exact shirt he’d bought this morning. His muscles fill it out deliciously, and I envision myself pushing that fabric up his broad chest and biting down on his pec.
Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.
Keep it together, Elliot.
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from smiling.
I glance up and see Andrew watching me from the other side of the room. My eyes roll up to the ceiling, and I ignore him, choosing to focus on Luke instead.
Luke:You ready for tonight?
My mind is blank. I can’t remember for the life of me what is happening tonight. There is no room in my head for anything other than him.
Quickly, I pull up the itinerary and see we are doing some kind of lantern tour in a cave.
What the hell am I doing?
I don’t go on cave tours.
I don’t tourist.
I don’t people.
And yet here I am, my fingers typing before my brain can fully process what I’m doing.
